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About

Neil Hokanson holds a bachelors degree in Education from the University of South Dakota (1993) and a masters degree in Education with a focus on Instructional Technology from the University of Wyoming (2006). Neil will begin his 21st year of working in public schools and taught in the public school system for 13 years at the middle and high school levels as a social studies teacher in South Dakota and Wyoming. He extensively integrated technology in his classrooms for several years and served as an instructor for many staff development courses and presentations in the districts he taught in. As a school technology specialist Neil has provided training, support, and assistance in helping educators integrate technology in all subject areas and grade levels. Neil served as the educational technology director for the North Platte Public Schools in Nebraska from 2007-2012. He moved back to the classroom in the Fall of 2012 and currently embeds Andorid tablets, a BYOD networking solution, and continues to create an extensive tutorial library at Hokanson's American History in his classroom. He is the proud husband of Dianna, a veteran speech-language pathologist, and father of 5 beautiful children: Hannah, Charlie, Ronan, Nicholas, and Heather.

Contents

This site is a compilation of research documents, texts, and resources gathered along the journey to find ways to help people learn more effectively in an ever changing world. What is shared is not always new, neither will it always be the first place one may have come across it, but the information is presented as the author is introduced to the many forms of technology that exist and are created in this wonderful, fascinating universe! Citations and referring links will be honored to the best of the author’s ability. Please inform of any omissions so that they can be corrected immediately. Enjoy!

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Quotes

"Out of clutter, find simplicity.
From discord, find harmony.
In the middle of difficulty, lies opportunity."

-Albert Einstein

“The digital outcast is not somebody who doesn’t have access to the technologies; s/he is somebody who, after the access has been granted, fails to actualise the transformative potentials of technologies for the self or for others.”

-Nishant Shah, Research Director of the Centre for Internet and Society in India

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

-From the speech, “Citizenship in a Republic” (1910) by Theodore Roosevelt

Disclaimer

The opinions expressed here are the personal views of Neil Hokanson and Hokanson's Instructional Technology (H I T) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the North Platte Public School District.

Reference to any products, services, hypertext link to the third parties or other information by trade name, trademark, supplier or otherwise does not constitute or imply its endorsement, sponsorship or recommendation by me. Nor is an endorsement of me implied by such links. They are for convenience only, as an index in a public library.

Any information on this web site may include technical inaccuracies or typographical errors. Furthermore, the information may change from time to time without any notice.

Every effort is made to keep the website up and running smoothly. However, Neil Hokanson and Hokanson's Instructional Technology (H I T) takes no responsibility for, and will not be liable for, the website being temporarily unavailable due to technical issues beyond our control.

I have been fiddling around with an Edubuntu 6.10 install for the past few months. Edubuntu comes with a superior educational program with applications for young children called GCompris. One of my problems was getting the children’s software GCompris to work without crashing. The simple solution was bringing up the terminal and typing in “gcompris -x.” Easy, but frustrating if you don’t know!!! The GCompris software is excellent for young children. There are so many applications from matching, counting, to problem solving, and more. Now that I have it running, I will have my soon to be 4 year old daughter try out the “games” to test them. My other 4 children will want to try too! It is nice having a test lab and subjects built in at home ;-) !!!

My experiment for the day is to get Edubuntu running on an old Power Mac 5500. I am downloading the Edubuntu .iso image to create a live CD, and then I will be off to the races. So many times I have watched legacy hardware lined up in the “boiler room” to be taken away for salvage (most of the time to the landfill!!!), and I honestly believe that in a school we can find continued life for old computers. Edubuntu is one of the answers to extend the life of some of these machines. I realize there comes a time when the value of maintaining legacy equipment is not cost effective, but I also believe we must get the most out of the tax dollars that fund technology in our schools. If we can take old iMacs and install Edubuntu on them and put them to good use in K-3 classrooms, for instance, why not do it!?!

Please share your utilization of legacy hardware and any experience using Edubuntu in the process. Also, what are your experiences using GCompris in the classroom? Inquiring minds would like to know!